This invention relates to an optical detector that has the property of being self-configurable, so that it can operate in proximity mode or in proximity with background elimination mode, this type of detector comprising an emission system and a reception system, the reception system being provided with at least one photoreceptor component capable of outputting a reception signal meaningful of whether an object is present on the path of an emission beam, or its distance along the path of an emission beam.
It is known that optical detectors emitting a light beam and using diffuse light reflection on the object to be detected use either energy measurement in a xe2x80x9cproximityxe2x80x9d family, or a measurement of the displacement of the light spot received by the photoreceptor component, by the triangulation effect, in a xe2x80x9cproximity with background eliminationxe2x80x9d family.
In practice, it would be desirable if this type of detector could automatically determine whether or not it could operate in proximity mode or in proximity with background elimination mode, depending on the distance to the observed background.
The purpose of the invention is to satisfy these needs.
According to the invention, the first operating mode is proximity mode and the second operating mode is proximity with background elimination mode, and the detector comprises hardware and software means for detection and configuration capable of recognizing the appropriate mode by comparing the reception signal with at least one threshold to measure the distance to the background, and to automatically switch the reception system into a proximity state or a proximity with background elimination state depending on the result of the comparison.
The reception system is automatically switched into one of the two states by a validation means.